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Disney’s drones: A closer look at what the theme park is ‘imagineering’

The term “drones” may invoke militaristic conspiracies, but The Walt Disney Co. may be planning its own spin for the emerging unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV technology.

The story was reported on theme park blog site, Stitch Kingdom that Disney applied to use drones in the parks for entertainment purposes, and it looks like the theme park has some really cool ideas in mind.

One patent shows how Disney could use drones as a way to do bigger aerial shows where the drones — attached to flexible projector screens — can perform in-air sequences while images are projected onto the screen they are carrying.

Another patent shows how the drones can be used with large marionettes to not only carry them, but to potentially have some attached to arms or legs and be used to articulate the marionettes.

It seems Disney came forward with the idea as a way to solve barriers that are met with current technology, geographical terrain or theme park makeup.

For example, the patent to use drones with projection screens stems from the limitations of projecting onto buildings — say like Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom.

“Use of buildings as projection surfaces is only useful in certain geographical settings, such as within large cities near water or other open spaces, and is often inapplicable in many settings in which an aerial display is desired, such as over a sports stadium or theme park where no or few tall buildings may be present. As a result, there remains a need for new technologies for generating aerial displays such as a display involving projection of light and images into or out of the sky or an air space above an audience of spectators,” said the patent.